PESHAWAR, June 28: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has opposed the draft constitutional amendments, stating that the proposals would have a lasting impact on governance in the country and alter the parliamentary system, presently in place under the 1973 Constitution.

The commission, in a statement issued here on Friday, believed that the tabling of the proposals only a few months ahead of the scheduled general elections was amounted to a deliberate plan to wrest power away from the elected representatives.

The statement said that some of the proposals looked an apparent attack on the federal system of the government which would exert a still greater strain on the national unity.

The HRCP proposed that amendments to the Constitution be made only after a public debate within an elected parliament so that they could be properly assessed, keeping in view the interests of the federation and its citizens.